#meme15 Why the Heck Do I Blog

On occasion I will join in on the subject based blogs, sometimes I do it because it is easy when someone else picks a topic, and sometimes I do it so when people are following a theme of reading that I hope I can offer up a different opinion. #meme15 posted by a friend of mine Jason Strate is raising an interesting question that I really wanted to answer. I have considered posting this many times in the past, and I have a number of other subjects (such as setting up a SQL Server on your own little testing virtual machine for free) that I am working on now that I am trying to find the time for, so I can complete the post.

Jason has posted the question on Why did I start blogging and then the follow-up on why do I continue to blog.

Why did I start blogging? I think if you follow this topic you may find a common thread, then again you never know. I started for a few reasons; one of the biggest reasons is that I really wanted to become a better writer. I don’t have any dreams of writing a great novel, or being able to stack up against these great people that work with and write about SQL Server. I want to become a better writer so that I can improve the communications that I have. When I first started collage I was in remedial English, and in high school I had to take more than one English class. Why am I not very good at it? My guess is because I really don’t try very hard at it. So when I started blogging I did it as a way to improve myself.

By the way, I have help with my blog and most of my posts are edited and reviewed by others, Wendy Pastrick has done a number of these reviews for me and I can assure you that there have been more than one post that would be hard to understand without everyone’s help. This post is not reviewed, because I wanted to see how I have improved over the years.

There is another reason that I started to blog, as you may see from my post about the SQL PASS elections I have a number of opinions. I have to admit that sometimes my opinions change. I really feed off of hear the opinions of others. I love the idea that I can see where my mind was years ago, I like to see how my opinions have changed.

Why do I continue to blog? Well I am nowhere close to where I would like to be as a writer. It is not the driving factor any longer. Now I look at where I came from where I started many years ago. My first 5 years as a DBA I was the only DBA in the shop, I know what it is like when I am trying to get a second opinion on something. Is there a better way to do it? So many times I had so many questions, and trying to find an answer that I was able to understand just was not to be found. If anything I post here on my blog helps even one person then it has all been worth it. I can tell you that most of the SQL Server bloggers I know, speakers that I have visited with over the last 10 years, that very few of us mind what many consider to be basic questions.

A number of years ago I put up my first blog post on a different blog then the one I have today. And within a month of starting one of the readers jumped on and just trashed me, it bugged me to the point where I didn’t go back to Blogging for a year. But after thinking about it, I had to remind myself that I do this for me, if others get something out of it than great. If not, I really hope to improve my skills.

Thanks for such a great question Jason, and to all my SQL friends I wish you a better year than last, and I challenge you to learn something new. Take a challenge.